Why newspapers will never be the same

It’s not that newspapers are dead, or that news will disappear any time soon. Indeed, there are lots of new ventures and collaborative models popping up all around the country. Some are being financed by foundations, others are building content through crowdsourcing, and a few are partnering up with big-time news corporations and/or universities. Some believe the key to survival is to go nonprofit; others are pushing paid content. All of the efforts are valiant, and judging by what many of my students at SF State have to say on the future of journalism, I think the news business in very good hands.

Still, a new way of gathering and disseminating the news, whether on dead trees or Smartphones, won’t replace the most vital part of any newsroom: the people.

It’s that the people who gave their all to the newsroom are losing their jobs, either taking buyouts, being laid off, or simply walking away to re-invent themselves in new careers.

The people were what made a newspaper special. Think back to the old days of the Chronicle, the days of Herb Caen, Charles McCabe and Stanton Delaplane. They are among the many colorful characters who turned a bland paper into something extraordinary, something very much like the town they wrote about.

“The San Francisco Chronicle, until about the 1970s, was home to a number of good writers,” wrote Richard Rodriguez in a 2009 article for New America Media. “No one talks about that. We talk about newspapers, but newspapers are about something much more intimate, something more local, something more flavored that merely news.”

And while it’s true that many of these writers are no longer at the paper because they retired or have died, there are many bright stars (editors, photographers, reporters, copy editors and more) who have left the paper, not because they wanted to, but because they had to, either through buyouts or layoffs.

Of course, the SF Chronicle is not the only paper losing its talent. Just this year, more than a thousand layoffs or buyouts have been tracked by Paper Cuts. And yes, I realize reader habits are changing, as noted in this recent forecast of “daily print’s demise.” But the thing that bothers me is that there is very little attention to the actual people who are laid off or forced out. Instead, much of the banter around the future of journalism focuses on viable business models, leaner-but-meaner staff, smarter content, shorter pieces, and so on. Aside from some very informative blogs, it has been almost impossible to find in-depth stories about the people who left, and how they once contributed to the “Voice of the West.”

Mind you, SFGate has an excellent page offering the history of the Chronicle and stories about those who have died. But that page does not offer bios or profiles about the hundreds who have left the paper in the last few years.

And that is what makes me determined to do something about it. Working with documentary maker Marlo McKenzie, volunteer writers, and a small but growing platoon of journalism students, I am hoping to help readers get to know the people who were and are behind the bylines and sections at the Chronicle. Which brings me back to Bill Pates.

“It’s fun to go back sometimes and see recurring themes,” said Pates, who started working at the paper in 1964. Bill took a buyout in 2007. But a quick tour around his apartment will reveal a life-long newspaper man, or as he likes to call it, a “second-generation Chronicle lifer.” It is only when you see and hear Bill’s story that you might begin to understand, perhaps even a little, why newspapers will never be the same, and why I will miss them so.

I’ll be moderating a panel discussion about the pricey SF Panorama newspaper (just bought one for $16) tomorrow night, Tuesday, March 9 at SF State’s McKenna Theater. Come by and join in what should be a lively discussion with author Dave Eggers, Chronicle editor-at-large Phil Bronstein and Oscar Villalon, former Chronicle book editor.

Also, if you’d like to contribute your ideas and suggestions to the documentary, “Seeking the Truth,” please email me at ywilson@sfsu.edu.